Women of All Red Nations (WARN) is founded.

Women of All Red Nations (WARN) is founded.

Female activists in the American Indian Movement found the Women of All Red Nations (WARN), an organization dedicated to fighting for the rights of all Indian people. Based on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, WARN will focus on many issues of particular relevance to women and children, such

The Archaeological Recovery Act is passed.

An amendment to the Reservoir Salvage Act of 1960, the Archaeological Recovery Act sets aside funds to recover or salvage Indian burial grounds and other important archaeological sites endangered by dam construction and other federal projects. The act is the first major piece of legislation that calls for the protection of Indian sites of historical and cultural significance.

The Indian Claims Commission offers compensation for the Black Hills.

Twenty-four years after their case first came before the Indian Claims Commission, the Lakota Sioux receive a favorable decision on their complaint regarding the United States’s illegal seizure of the Black Hills in South Dakota, an area sacred to the Lakota (see entry for 1877). The commission determines that the land and the gold mined from the area was worth $17.5 million at the time the Black Hills were appropriated. It also finds that the Lakota are entitled to 5 percent annual interest, since the U. S. actions violated their Fifth Amendment rights.

The victory for the Lakota will be short-lived. The next year, the U. S. Court of Claims will reverse the decision. It will rule that the Indian Claims Commission cannot determine the case, because it had already been heard and dismissed by the U. S. Court of Clai ms in 1942. Despite this setback, the Lakota will continue their legal battle throughout the 1970s. (See also entry for JUNE 30, 1980.)

February 7

AIM leader Russell Means loses the election for Pine Ridge tribal chairman.

In an election for tribal chairman of the Pine Ridge Reservation, incumbent Dick Wilson defeats Russell Means, a leader of the American Indian Movement (AIM) activists who took over Wounded Knee the previous year to protest Wilson’s systematic harassment of Indian traditionalists (see entry for FEBRUARY 28, 1973). In a later investigation of the election, the U. S. Commission on Civil Rights will find that nearly one-third of the votes were “tainted,” but the Justice Department will take no action against Wilson.

February 12

The Boldt Decision confirms Northwest Indian fishing rights.

A long series of protests and court battles regarding fishing rights culminates in United States v. State of

Washington. In the case, many Indian groups challenge the right of the Washington State government to regulate and restrict Indian fishing. These regulations were instituted beginning in the early 20th century to placate non-Indian commercial fishing concerns and sports fishermen. In their argument, the Indians refer to the treaties by which they were forced to cede their lands (see entry for MAY 24 TO JUNE 11, 1855). These documents explicitly stated that the Indian groups retained the right to fish at their “usual and accustomed” fishing areas, whether these were on or off reservations, without interference by the state.

A landmark victory in the battle for Indian fishing rights, the ruling in the case (known as the Boldt Decision, after the presiding judge, George Boldt) states that the Indian groups that signed these treaties have a right to half the catch taken in the state of Washington. It also holds that for conservation purposes the state can limit the overall catch, but it cannot impose rules on Indian fishers regarding their fishing methods.

April 12

The Indian Financing Act provides loans for Indian-run businesses.

With the Indian Financing Act, Congress establishes a fund from which Indians can draw loans to finance business ventures. The law is a response to the difficulty many Indians have encountered borrowing money from banks that refuse to accept as collateral tribal lands held in trust by the government.

May

Mohawk activists occupy Ganienkeh.

Claiming the land belongs to them, a group of Mohawk from the Akwesasne and Kahnawake reservations occupy 612 acres owned by New York State at Eagle Bay, near Moss Lake in the Adiron-dacks. They rename the land “Ganienkeh,” meaning “Land of Flintstone.” The occupation begins a lengthy standoff between the activists and local authorities. (See also entry for MAY 13, 1977.)

June

The International Indian Treaty Council is founded.

The First International Indian Treaty Conference results in the formation of the International Indian Treaty Council. The conference, held on the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, is organized by the American Indian Movement and attended by several thousand Indians from 97 Indian groups from North, Central, and South America. The participants outline IITC’s philosophy in “The Declaration of Continuing Independence,” which calls on governments throughout the world to recognize and respect the sovereignty of indigeneous peoples. (See also entry for JULY 1977.)

“Might does not make right. Sovereign people of varying cultures have the absolute right to live in harmony with Mother Earth so long as they do not infringe upon this same right of other people. The denial of this right to any sovereign people, such as the Native American Indian Nations, must be challenged by truth and action. World concern must focus on all colonial governments to the end that sovereign people everywhere shall live as they choose, in peace with dignity and freedom.”

—from the International Indian Treaty Council’s “Declaration of Continuing Independence”

June 17

Morton v. Mancari et al. upholds preference to Indian applicants for Bureau of Indian Affairs jobs.

In Morton v. Mancari et al., the legality of the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ time-honored policy of giving Indian job applicants preferential treatment is challenged as unconstitutional. A Supreme Court ruling, however, states that this preference does not violate the U. S. Constitution’s prohibition on racial discrimination but rather emerges naturally from the federal government’s responsibility to allow and encourage Indians to govern themselves. The decision thus implies that because of the unique historical relationship between Indian nations and the United States, Congress may grant preferences to Indians in other areas as well.

Long criticized for its lack of Indian representation, the staff of the BIA will radically change its racial make-up in the wake of Morton v. Mancari. By the beginning of the 1980s, more than 75 percent of BIA positions will be staffed by Indians.

Canada establishes the Office of Native Claims.

As a result of the Canadian Supreme Court’s ruling in Calder v. Attorney General (see entry for JANU ARY 31, 1973), the Canadian government creates the Office of Native Claims. Like the Indian Claims Commission (see entry for AUGUST 12, 1946) in the United States, the Office of Native Claims will hear Indian land claims cases and offer restitution to Native groups whose ancestral lands were taken from them illegally.

July 22 to August 28

The Ojibwa Warrior Society seizes an Ontario park.

A radical group modeled after the American Indian Movement, the Ojibwa Warrior Society begins a

Four-week occupation of Anishinabe Park in Ke-nora, Ontario. The park sits on 14 acres of land that the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs purchased to create a camping area for Indian use. Without the Indians’ permission, the government sold the land to the town of Kenora, which developed it as a tourist area. The protest forces town authorities to enter into negotiations with the Ojib-way, but it elicits little support from most Canadian Indians, who are uneasy with the Ojibwa Warrior Society’s confrontational tactics.

December 22

Congress passes the Hopi-Navajo Land Settlement Act.

A two-million-acre area of the Hopi Indian Reservation is occupied by both the Hopi and the Navajo (Dineh) (see entry for 1962). The two groups, however, have great difficulty jointly managing the land, which leads Congress to pass the Hopi-Na-vajo Land Settlement Act. The act grants roughly half of the area to the Navajo, with the transfer to take place in 1977. The partitioning of the Joint Use Area calls for the eventual relocation of several hundred Hopi and nearly 5,000 Navajo. (See also entry for MAY 11, 2005.)